“The clarity and detail was excellent, the depth and width amazing and the bass was tight, punchy and round”

BOSTON – Johnny A., winner of the Boston Music Award’s Blues Artist of the Year 2010 and a Gibson Guitar Signature Artist, has installed a Solid State Logic AWS Hybrid Console/Controller to complete his high-end home studio. Johnny A. has lent his talents over the years to projects with leading musicians, including vocalist Peter Wolf (J. Geils Band), percussionist Mingo Lewis (Santana), drummer Doug Clifford (Creedence Clearwater Revival) and keyboardist Bobby Whitlock (Derek and the Dominos), before releasing his first solo album in 2001. The AWS 948 gives Johnny A. the ability to capture and mix his upcoming projects with the same sonic purity and punch as the large, professional studios, but in a convenient and comfortable creative setting.

“I was first exposed to the AWS at an Art Institute program attended by my daughter, where I had the chance to work with some Live at Daryl’s House audio stems that were lent to the program,” says Johnny A. speaking about the popular program produced and hosted by Daryl Hall of Hall & Oates fame. “The stems were also recorded on an AWS, so basically I had the chance to just play around with the high-quality audio. It is difficult for me to explain what I was feeling and hearing, but it was almost like the tracks had a comfortable ‘this sounds right’ glow about them. The clarity and detail was excellent, the depth and width amazing and the bass was tight, punchy and round. This led to developing a relationship with SSL, and from there the purchase of the AWS 948 for my studio.”

Once the console was integrated into Johnny A.’s control room, he immediately started to run some raw, unmixed stereo stems from his current recording project Driven to get a feel for using the AWS with his Mac/Logic DAW rig. The difference in audio quality became immediately apparent.

“When I ran some previously recorded tracks through the AWS, I was completely amazed by the results,” states Johnny A. “That same audio glow I experienced earlier was right there in my monitors. When I started to break out the tracks and play with a mix, the sound was big and warm. Another thing I noticed was the spot-on phase coherency. I am getting the same level of sound quality now that I experienced in multi-million dollar studios, but in my home.”

Johnny A. is no stranger to SSL, as over the years the projects he has been involved with were mixed on SSL consoles. When it came time to build a home-based creative haven, he brought in the highest level outboard gear to accomplish tracking to Logic, but the mixing element was missing. The AWS 948 was purchased to pull everything together into a cohesive personal working space.

“When I record my guitar, I always go direct through analogue gear to whatever the recording media is,” continues Johnny A. “The AWS not only makes all my gear work together for mixing, it allows me to track as well. I have never put on the engineer hat before, and the AWS experience, while initially daunting for me, has been extremely rewarding. I also put in an SSL XLogic X-Rack filled with dynamics modules to add SSL compression to all of my drum tracks. I am very excited to be creating new projects with the AWS 948.”

Hear the AWS 948 in action on Johnny A.’s new release Driven, available at www.JohnnyA.com